6.9.15

We Are The Rhoads for Facebook

When Facebook launched more than 11 years ago (as The Facebook), it was an exclusive online destination to meet people that were just like you. Starting at a few high level universities, over the years Facebook has expanded to include more and more people. In late 2006, the site was opened to the public allowing anyone with a valid email address to sign up for the service and find a way to connect with friends, family, and even strangers, forging relationships through the internet, sharing thoughts, stories, and messages instantly and easily. As the world has changed in the last decade, Facebook has changed with it, developing and growing to fit the needs of their users. What hasn’t changed is that it is a place for community. It was always a forum for people to come together and it always will be. In order to help Facebook encapsulate this message they brought We Are The Rhoads on board to send that message out into the world.

Taking their entire team to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sarah and Chris Rhoads explain that getting out of their typical haunts of New York City and Los Angeles was the pitch perfect choice giving them the freedom to work and provide Facebook with what they needed. “Facebook has such a large demographic that they’re pulling form from all over the world they didn’t want it to just feel like one region,” Sarah explains. “They really wanted it to have a global quality to it.” That’s why they chose Buenos Aires, a city that has such a diverse cultural population and rich environmental history. From European influenced architecture to tropical fauna, Buenos Aires stands in for “everywhere,” and as a result, everyone.

That expansive inclusion fits the message that Facebook tasked The Rhoads with telling. Facebook is a community. It is a space to be with other people. And even though Facebook exists online, the people don’t. When people come together, whether it’s relationships that they made through Facebook, or attending invites they received through the site, they come together with other people. Facebook is merely a tool, a powerful tool, used to build and maintain communities. “For Facebook it was about connecting people in real life,” says Sarah. “You don’t see phones, you don’t see people on computers. It’s about connecting in real life and showing how Facebook brings people together.” A huge part of the scenes presented by Chris and Sarah is how natural they are, how authentic the moments between the subjects are. This is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Sarah and Chris’ work, but the environment helped them attain exactly what they needed.

Buenos Aires operates at a different level than New York, and even Los Angeles. The relaxed nature of the city and the shoot provided the groundwork for experimentation, including a very successful few minute’s play with smoke bombs. It was all possible because Facebook supported The Rhoads in what they were there to do: create. “It’s just really awesome when the brand comes together creating optimum conditions for everyone to work in their best manner,” says Chris. “So we felt super supported creatively by Facebook, and that’s always really exciting.” That support allowed Sarah and Chris the freedom to do what they do best and give Facebook everything they needed and more.